Freedman's Bureau Bulletin

Keeping citizens informed daily (November edition)

Freedman's Bureau Bulletin

Keeping citizens informed daily (November edition)

Freedman's Bureau

The Freedman's Bureau has been like a birthday gift! Congress created the Freedman's Bureau and it has given food, clothing, medical care, schools and job services for the poor white citizens and freed slaves. I interviewed a few of the recipients at the Freedman's Bureau building during their visit to ask about the services that they had received. Here are few thoughts that they shared with me:

"My family had almost nothing to eat because the crops did not grow well this year. Thank goodness for the Bureau!"

"My boy was hit in the head by the cow's hoof and the doctors were able to help him so that he would not go blind".

We only had a few clothes for our children since it was winter time and they needed shoes and a new coat. Now they will be okay for the winter time."

"I was looking at 5 different places for a job but no one was hiring any blacksmiths. I found a livery stable that needed one man.

Customer after customer had only great things to say about the services and how their lives has been changed for the better.

A school for the children

Picking out clothing

Medical care

A school for the children

Picking out clothing

Medical care

Ban the Freedman's Bureau!

The Freedman's Bureau should be run out of town as soon as possible. Congress must have gone "soft" when they thought of this plan to improve the lives of the southern citizens. By giving food, clothing and medicine, they will make people lazy and want to depend on the government for the same things that they received for free as slaves. The next thing that will happen, is that the blacks will want to know how read and write too!

Andrew Johnson, the Vice President, will use his powers to insure that the bill renew the Freedman's Bureau's existence will be vetoed. By banning the Freedman's Bureau, people will know who is in charge of the local areas. Sure we have our problems but we do not want this group here anymore.

Write to your congressman and help to support the Vice President in his effort to veto any new bills to renew the funding of this agency.

The Sharecropping Life

The Freedman's Bureau promised to improve the lives of former slaves and poor white citizens but did they promised too much? The sharecropping system will allow the farmers to rent the land and pay the landowner with a share of the crops they raise each season. Unfortunately, the system has left the farmers poorer and poorer each season. The African American farmers started to became a part of an economic system of slavery in which they depended on the crops ability to grow and sell at a price that would allow them to pay their rent. So the sharecropping life did not give them a live of independence at all.